


Saturday Night Ritual

by orphan_account



Category: Discworld - Pratchett
Genre: Community: femslash100, Day of the Dead, F/F, Female Characters, Ficlet, POV Third Person Omniscient, Past Tense, Rituals, Samedi Nuit Mort, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-25
Updated: 2007-04-25
Packaged: 2017-10-09 03:35:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/82583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account





	Saturday Night Ritual

On Samedi Nuit Mort, after the ball, the Baroness becomes a beggar, and the beggar a Baron. Ella paints her face blue and white as frozen death, wraps herself in multicoloured feathers, and dances out into the street. There's music everywhere: where silence threatens song will burst, and anything hollow can become a drum.

She knows nobody and everybody; tomorrow she may die.

The moon rises, people, in all shapes, swarm the streets, and every turn brings her cheek to cheek with a new person. They become one animal, jumping, shaking, singing.

The power rises.

'You're here,' she mouths, her voice lost in the noise. A woman stands still among the writhing bodies of men and monsters. Her hair waves like fire, straight up in the air, one black strand snaking up amongst the white. Their eyes lock, and Susan smiles.

The dancer becomes Ella, extracts from the animal into Susan's arms, and they kiss, the night pulsing around them.

In the center of the city, the castle, she bends up against death's cold fingers, kisses death's mouth. Susan, in her aspect, is pale and formidable and unspeakable; Ella, in her humanity, glorious.

She is Baroness, and the Baroness is Genua. At the year's opposite end she will have a different engagement. The land will not be unbalanced again – nor Ella, controlled.


End file.
